The Allomancer
by oOkuronekoOo
Summary: The Fourth Ninja War has ended, and Sasuke returns to Konoha broken and comatose. After several weeks, Sakura takes on a task from the new Hokage, and she finds the cure to bring him back.


Hello, hello! I've been brewing this story in my head for many months, now, and the time is right to publish it! Honestly – I haven't read the manga since the Kages, together, entered the Fourth Ninja War. So – this story may be completely against what actually happened during and after the War, or it may be right on cue! Happy reading!

Chapter 1: He's Back

"He's back."

Those two words spread like wildfire throughout the village of Konoha following the Fourth Ninja War. Sasuke Uchiha's broken, unconscious body was carried through the gates and immediately transported to the hospital.

The weeks seemed to pass by. Two weeks. Four weeks. Six weeks. And still no response from the last Uchiha.

"He's not coming back you, know," said the blonde fox, Naruto Uzumaki, to his teammate Sakura Haruno, after waiting eight long weeks for his best friend to come back from dreamland. Running a hand through his hair, he continued, "He's just not coming back."

"You don't know that," responded the pink-haired kunoichi in kind, biting her nails and not looking her friend in the eye.

The two have had this conversation every day for the past four weeks.

"It just doesn't make any sense. His vitals are stable, there's color in his cheeks…he just won't wake up!" Sakura was beyond frustrated. The man she still loved – could not help but love – was so close to her…yet still so far away. "It's like…there's something I'm missing…," she trailed off. Sakura started to bite her nails again.

_Sigh._ "I wish you'd cut that out," said Naruto, looking in Sakura's direction. "It's kinda gross."

Looking up from her reverie, Sakura stood up from her seat on the window sill in Sasuke's room and thumped Naruto upside the head as she walked by and out the door.

Naruto looked at his hands, then stood up and stuffed them in his pockets. He walked near to Sasuke's sleeping form.

"Baka. If you only knew what you were doing to her." Then, he followed his teammate out of the room, leaving the last Uchiha alone.

Soon after the end of the Fourth Ninja War, Tsunade realized her time as Hokage had come to an end. She wanted to live what was left her life in peace, without the stacks of paperwork and an entire village relying on her to do what was right.

Kakashi Hatake was instated in her place, realizing it was his time to step down from active ninja duty to serve his beloved village.

While going through, and becoming familiar with, the piles of files that lived below the Hokage's headquarters, Kakashi came across the clan files. Each clan in each ninja village had a file of their own. _I don't have time for this political shit_, thought Kakashi.

"Kakashi!" screamed the pink-haired kunoichi, as she abruptly entered his office, several weeks after he took his new post.

"Yare, yare, yare…Sakura, you can't just come in here like his. Do you have any sense of decorum?"

"Whatever." Sakura plopped down, uncaringly, in a chair across from the Hokage's chair.

Of course, Kakashi wasn't in the chair. He hated that chair…he felt confined, constricted…responsible…A few breaths later, the Hokage perched on the edge of his desk, trying to look his former student in the eye.

"Sakura, why are you here?" asked Kakashi, running a hand through his silver hair. "Why aren't you training, or at the hospital, or doing something girly…" he trailed off. He'd been trying to connect with his former students on a more personal level since the War. It was a promise he made to himself before plunging into battle.

"I just don't get it."

"Kami, Sakura, this visit isn't about Sasuke again, is it? I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."

"We're missing something, Kakashi! Doesn't that bother you? Sasuke-kun is perfectly healthy…he's just not waking up!" Sakura met the eye of her former sensei. "Why am I the only one who cares?" she sobbed.

_Sigh_. Kakashi walked to his former student and embraced her. "Sakura…it's not that we don't care, and you know that." Silence. "It's time that you move on. For real, this time. You fooled all of us when you said you were over him after you began training with Tsunade-sama. But, you need to realize that even if he does wake up some day, he's not the same kid, the same person, he was all those years ago. He's killed so many people, without regret. You're not like that, and you don't accept that. You deserve so much better than _that_."

"You don't think I _know_ that, Kakashi?" Sakura cried, hugging the village leader. "He's all I think about. He's all I have thought about since I was ten! Even if he never loves me, like I love him, I can't live with that fact that I feel there is something we can do for him…we can't just leave him like a vegetable the rest of his life!"

"…I came across the clan files the other day. Below grounds," he whispered.

Silence.

"I'll look through the Uchiha file. There may be a justu with the Sharingan I can try with Sasuke to at least get him to open his eyes. Weirder things have been known to happen. Will this suffice? Will you promise me you won't continue to mope about. And please, please, _please_, go home and take a shower, Sakura! Kami, how long have you been sitting in the hospital?"

Sakura pulled away and laughed. It wasn't full-hearted, but it was something.

A moment later, she asked, "Want any help? I really have nothing else to do."

"Again – why aren't you training, Sakura?"

"Because I don't want to, OK? I promised myself I wouldn't continue life as a kunoichi until he woke up…"

And for the first time since the start of her visit, Kakashi noticed Sakura wasn't wearing her typical shirt and skirt ensemble. She was in a knee-length dress that totally wasn't meant for sparring.

"Fine," Kakashi spat. "If it will get you to do something _productive_, then fine, you can play Hokage's assistant." Sakura bowed and began to leave. "But, no Naruto!"

The next day, Sakura began her search. She came across files for the Nara and Hatake clans, but nothing on the Uchiha clan. The basement of the Hokage's headquarters was damp, dark, and full of spiders, but Sakura was determined in her task.

After eight hours of pulling files, looking through files, and putting files back, she was about to give up for the day. It wasn't until she bumped into a file stack that she came across a file marked "Highly Confidential" that she finally got excited about something since the Fourth Ninja War. Though Sakura had morals, and those morals told her to keep the file shut, she was also incredibly curious and reminded her inner self that she was on a mission on behalf of the Hokage himself.

She opened the file. And she found the answer she'd been searching for.


End file.
